Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, December 21, 2021: Alexey Brodovitch, an American art director, graphic designer, and photographer (#1449)

Alexey Brodovitch, (1898—1971) was an American magazine art director, graphic designer, and photographer. After fighting in the Russian army in World War I, Brodovitch worked as a graphic designer in Paris from 1920 until 1930, when he moved to New York City. In 1934 Carmel Snow, editor of Harper’s Bazaar magazine, hired Brodovitch to invigorate the magazine with a modern spirit; it was in this capacity that Brodovitch would leave his greatest legacy.

During his tenure at Harper’s Bazaar (1934–58), Brodovitch revolutionized American magazine design. He departed from the static layouts and conventional posed studio photographs prevalent in 1930s editorial design. Instead, he emphasized the double-page spread as a dynamic field upon which exquisite photographs, crisp Bodoni typefaces, and elegant white space were arranged into a total composition. Brodovitch sought to imbue each monthly issue with a visual flow analogous to a musical composition. He used changes in size, complexity, values, and colours to provide the viewer with a sequence of varying experiences, evoking energy and movement on the printed page.

In addition to his work for Harper’s Bazaar, Brodovitch set new standards of design excellence in numerous other book and editorial commissions, notably his collaboration with Frank Zachary on Portfolio magazine (1949–51). Brodovitch spread his design approach to others through classes and workshops, in particular through his Design Laboratory (1936–59) in New York, and became widely influential as a mentor and teacher. Designers who studied under or were influenced by him—including Otto Storch and Henry Wolf—revitalized American magazine design in the 1950s and ’60s. Brodovitch also gained recognition for his own photographs, particularly those featured in his book Ballet (1945).

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